Top Groups at William Blair and Robert W. Baird in Chicago?

Hi everyone! I'm a freshman undergraduate from a non-target looking to gather some information about the investment banking scene in Chicago. After reading through some posts on this forum, I understand that William Blair and Robert W. Baird, among others, are clear leaders in the middle market. What are some of the top groups at these two firms with respect to deal flow, exit opportunities, reputation, work-life balance, etc.? How does placement work? Should you demonstrate an interest in a specific group early in the networking and recruitment process? Any help and guidance would be appreciated. Thank you!

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Historically, Industrials was Baird's bread and butter, I know they win frequent (and sometimes large) mandates. I think biz services (called tech/services?) is strong as well along with consumer coming through with some cool names. Distribution but that's mostly out of Tampa. Fairly well rounded imo.

Blair is SUPER strong in tech, both Chi and SF offices. Definitely do more in the software realm vs. just tech services. Healthcare also quite strong and industrials not bad. Again, nearly all groups are solid.

Hard to go wrong landing at either one of these places--I don't think you need to go "all in" on a coverage group for recruiting but think about what you might want to target.

 

Blair's tech group isn't really office specific, they run tech out of Chicago, SF, Boston and Atlanta and all these offices work together. So a banker in Chicago can be working on a deal sourced out of one of the other offices and vice versa. Saying a specific office is strong in the space isn't really accurate considering they all work hand in hand.

 

Where would Guggenheims Chicago MM office fit compared to these two?

 

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